The Party who is desperately attempting to eliminate from the voting rolls all those who may vote against this (with virtually no media coverage of this attack on a fundamental and sacred right) is the ONLY one that appears to be engaging in voting fraud at all.

A criminal probe into doctored petitions for U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter
may be uncharted territory as officials say they've never encountered
such widespread signature problems.

About 87 percent of McCotter's
signatures to get on the primary ballot were tossed because of
duplicated copies and apparent copying and pasting of past signatures on
his nominating petitions which the state's election chief said Tuesday
was "frankly unheard of."

"No one has heard of anything so over
the top before," echoed former Republican Attorney General Mike Cox. He
added: "To have really overt massive potential fraud is really very
unusual."

McCotter is a frequent guest on the late-night Fox News Channel television show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld.
McCotter is also a regular guest on Dennis Miller's radio show, where the comedian-host refers to him as "young Thad" and "T-Mac" and frequently comments that he "likes the cut of [his] jib."

The Right Wing has apparently adopted a spin on Dan Savage's "It Gets
Better" campaign tailored for the clinically depressed - we can make it even worse.

On 23 December 2010 Shuai became so depressed after she
had been abandoned by her boyfriend – a married Chinese man who broke
his promise to set up a family with her – that she decided to end her
life. She consumed rat poison, and after confessing to friends was
rushed to the Methodist hospital...

Doctors took steps to save her, but on 31 December there were signs
that the baby, then at 33 weeks gestation, was in distress and a
Caesarian was performed. On the second day of Angel's life the baby was
found to have a massive brain haemorrhage and on 2 January was taken off
life support.

Shuai held Angel for five hours as the baby gradually faded and died.
"Why do they want to take my baby away?" she kept asking, in between
bouts of fainting. Shuai begged for her own life to be taken so that her
child's might be spared.

Like many states, Indiana long ago passed a feticide law aimed at
protecting pregnant women from physical abuse by violent men. Now we
have gone to the point where these laws, in the hands of conservative
right-to-lifers can criminally charge women for having a bad ending to a
pregancy. If one thinks Ms. Shuai acted badly remember the law as
applied here doesn't just go after those who are suiciidally depressed
-- what of the woman who smokes or eats poorly and has a stillborn
child? Or maybe we'll just push on to a system when every poor birth
outcome is a potential felony -- aimed against the offending/unfortunate
woman.

If you can pair it up with a country that doesn't allow
contraceptives or the criminal prosecution of priests you'll have
Cardinal Dolan's heaven-on-earth.

Romney was scheduled to raise as much as $2 million with Donald Trump at two events Tuesday evening, but his public schedule was designed to avoid highlighting his relationship with the controversial mogul, who continues to espouse disproven theories that Obama was not born in the United States.
That was a challenge from the moment Romney landed at Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport. As Romney’s chartered plane taxied down the runway, a private plane emblazoned with Trump’s surname sat parked near the terminal. Romney’s staffers tried to move photographers and reporters into a position where they could not see Trump’s shining-black aircraft as Romney alighted from his plane. They were not successful, and the first images of Romney arriving in Las Vegas and quickly beamed around the nation showed Trump’s plane over his shoulder.

On Memorial Day, as I learned from one of Bill O'Reilly's "for kids" books, there is something that occurs but once a year (ok, twice). GI Joe comes from the D.E.W. Line in his magical tank and bestows gifts upon military veterans for their service ("hope you weren't counting on the 'Dream Act' but here's the gift of PTSD Jose"). Hey, it's right there on page 1, 29, or 187, look it up.

But then, just like Christmas, liberal grinchulist workers party member Chris Hayes had to ruin
it by distinguishing veterans from the wars they were required to
fight. How dare you question the expansion of Arlington Cemetery, sir
-- have you a normal amount of shame?!

All our soldiers are heroes...until they are not Republican enough -- or do not perform to Ann Coulter's satisfaction. Same thing.

It's quite simple really.

But now that we've knocked shouted that issue down that we can get back to statements about our soldiers that are not to be criticized.

Fox's Ablow: Women Wanting To Serve In Combat Is "Narcissism" And Allowing It Would "Shoot Holes In Our Culture"

I hope we all can be properly contrite and move on from this.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

It's an amazing close call as to who the bigger asshole is in this story. Roger Ailes who just lied his ass off, or Howard Kurtz who pretty much did the same in trying to apologize for Ailes being an asshole.

Dip it in batter and deep-fat fry it...I expect that to be done by the time the Iowa State Fair rolls around...sing first verse of "God Bless America"...you will probably not make it to the second verse.

Asked Monday to weigh in on Trump’s support for the so-called birther
movement, Romney declined to condemn Trump’s latest suggestion that
Obama was born in Kenya.

“I don’t agree with all the people who
support me. And my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I
believe in,” Romney told reporters before flying from California to
Colorado Monday evening. “But I need to get 50.1 percent or more. And
I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”

Mitt Romney referred to Russia as the United State’s “number one geopolitical foe”

Romney really does think he is running against Jimmy Carter.
And now at a Memorial Day speech probably also attended by his sons Tag, Buffy, Joffrey, Jagoff and Poindexter, Romney added a wrinkle:

Speaking at a Memorial Day tribute event in San Diego
with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Mitt Romney honored the nation’s fallen
and military families for their honorable service to their country, but
he also warned of a shrinking military going the “course of Europe.”

“There are two courses we could follow in dangerous world,” Romney
said. “The first is the course of Europe…and the other is the course of
America.”

I'd say something snarky, but I have no fricking clue what that is
even supposed to mean other than Europe = Bad; America = Good.

Monday, May 28, 2012

This morning on "This Week," ABC News' George Will called Donald Trump a "bloviating ignoramus,"...
"Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics," Will dded. "Again, I don't understand the benefit. What is Romney seeking?"

Well, in the short-term Mittens gets to obtain a haul of cash when he does a fund-raiser with the asshole.

Second, he gets to hang out with another spoiled rich brat of a father who actually made him rich and thinks he made it all on his own talents. And they must stick together.

Let's hope for plenty of pictures and video of Romney praising the moron...goodness knows Romney will try to keep that from happening.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Republican Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed a bill aimed at keeping state courts and agencies from using Islamic or other non-U.S. laws when making decisions, his office said on Friday, drawing criticism from a national Muslim group.

Richard Leakey predicts skepticism over evolution will soon be history...
Sometime in the next 15 to 30 years, the Kenyan-born paleoanthropologist expects scientific discoveries will have accelerated to the point that "even the skeptics can accept it."

Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Vatican confirmed on Saturday that the pope's butler has been arrested in its embarrassing leaks scandal, adding a Hollywood twist to a sordid tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance.

How many more capital ships do we have than the rest of the world combined? Why are we constantly involved in "strategic wars"? Oh...right.

The U.S. Navy is gearing up to show off its Great Green Fleet at this summer's biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) fleet exercises. The collection of 48 ships and more than 200 aircraft will operate on 50/50 blends of conventional fossil fuel and various biofuels that have been under development.

So we're trying to reduce our dependence on oil AND reduce pollution simultaneously, who could possibly resist?

...you know where this is going:

Several House Republicans are trying to shoot it down. To them, it costs more than conventional fuel, end of story. But the story doesn't end there. Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), who chairs a House Armed Services subcommittee, said that rather than spending defense dollars on developing alternative fuels production and developing its market capability, the navy should be focused on building more ships and planes

A private detective working for Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers used a legally questionable tactic to obtain a hotel bill that a New York financier ran up at one of London's swankest hotels, records reviewed by Reuters show.
A database of business records compiled by British government investigators shows that some time before his arrest in March 2003, private investigator Steve Whittamore, or someone working for him, misrepresented themselves to obtain from Claridge's Hotel a copy of a bill belonging to Robert Agostinelli, an American who runs the Rhone Group private equity firm.

But Murdoch Co. insures us there's no way they hacked American phones. Suuuuuuuure.

The Missouri House has spent more than $1,100 in taxpayer money on a security camera to keep watch over a new bronze bust of conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh.

So if you want to go to Jefferson City, Missouri and pretend to bowl with Scott Joplin's bust you'll have time to pick up the spare. But touch the Oxycontin Kid and they'll be one you before you can say it looks about 50 pounds too light.
(pic via Teresia at flickr.com)
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, May 24, 2012

It's perfectly fine for whatever predilections Roger Aisles obviously has to run the Network (I'm thinking it involves talcum powder and diapering) but Rupert forbid a an uncloseted gay person get a gig.

Earlier this week over 40 Catholic institutions filed a dozen
separate suits against the Obama administration’s regulation requiring
employers and insurers to cover contraceptive services at no additional
cost to employees. To which one can only say, "well, considering how
this went before, good luck with that."

It will cost the Church millions to bring these lawsuits, which I
guess is at least a change of pace from paying tens of millions to end
them. But still one does wonder how those who give to the Church feel
about this? After all they accept birth control as an important medical
treatment overwhelmingly -- will there be a turn of the tithe?

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I have to admit, I'm a big ol' luddite when it comes to Facebook. I don't enjoy the little capers, I don't enjoy the "how many followers you got?" bullshit, I certainly don't enjoy the constant "poking" it's a big annoying mess as far as I'm concerned.

While I like Twitter a lot.

So I've never really understood why Facebook is such a "big" deal for investors...and it looks like after drolling over it like Pavlov's Dogs the last several months, within a day or two of public trading beginning investors are wondering the same thing.

After days of ridicule
for launching a conspiracy theory-fueled investigation into Barack
Obama’s birth certificate, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett on
Tuesday backed off his threat to keep the president off the ballot in
November and apologized to his state.

He knew all along that Obama was a citizen but claimed it was the thousand or so teabagger requests that made him do it. But suddenly he called it off.

And you know why?

He had uncovered the truth of the Mitt Romney is a unicorn conspiracy.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, compared immigrants to dogs at a town hall meeting yesterday, telling constituents that the U.S. should pick only the best immigrants the way one chooses the “pick of the litter.”

Before you write off Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett as another one of those fringy state officials diving deep into the birther waters of Hawaii, consider this: He is one of the co-chairs of the Romney campaign in Arizona.

Then again, that honorary position already comes with a few
smudge marks. Another of Romney’s co-chairs was Paul Babeu, the
virulently anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff who resigned as co-chair in February when he was forced out of the closet by allegations of an affair with … an illegal Mexican immigrant.

Do we know for sure Mitt wasn't born in Mexico, test-tubed from the Seychelles, found in a Swiss bank deposit box, is he actually a human being or for that matter organic?
The people demand to know...and in this case, according to a comment at TPM he wins the plurality:

Deb Dean
Ken Bennett [Arizona's Secretary of State] said he was investigating President Obama's birth because he had received more than 1,200 requests from concerned citizens. The group Left Action has asked folks to send requests to Secretary Bennett to investigate whether Mitt Romney is a unicorn. To date, more than 3,600 requests have been sent. ::heh::

Republicans who have been the beneficiary of the three Presidential elections in American history (remember Pres. Tilden, the three terms of Grover Cleveland and of course America's greatest President Al Gore) where the winner of the popular vote was the eventual loser naturally proclaim voter fraud to be a problem -- through fantasy.
Which brings us to Scott Walker, Kock Prostitute:

"I’ve always thought in this state, close elections, presidential elections, it means you probably have to win with at least 53 percent of the vote to account for fraud. One or two points, potentially."
That’s enough to change the outcome of the election. “Absolutely. I mean there’s no question why they went to court and fought [to undo] voter ID.”

That's a LOT of alleged fraud in a state with three-million voters, tens of thousands.
Which makes you wonder, as Dave Weigel does, why...

The voter fraud issue was investigated in Wisconsin fairly recently, in the form of an Election Fraud Task Force and a deep dive into 2008's vote results. The yearlong investigation charged 20 people

Monday, May 21, 2012

Inspired by the actions of Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook co-founder who renounced his citizenship
ahead of a large tax payment associated with the company’s
much-ballyhooed initial public offering, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and
Bob Casey (D-PA) unveiled a bill Thursday to force such tax-dodgers to
pay a 30 percent tax rate on all future U.S. investments and ban them
from ever setting foot in the country again.

Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist compared it to the actions of Nazi Germany.

“I think Schumer can probably find the legislation to do this. It
existed in Germany in the 1930s and Rhodesia in the ’70s and in South
Africa as well,” Norquist said, as quoted by The Hill. “He probably just plagiarized it and translated it from the original German.”

Yes, that's a real probative and not-at-all illogical reaction to it -- jackass.

According to the Topeka Capital-Journal's Tim Carpenter,
Palin's recorded calls have been dispatched in Kansas. While the call
begins with a cheerful "Hello, Texas!" greeting from Palin, Carpenter
reported Sunday that he had received the message while at his office at
the Topeka newspaper, hundreds of miles from the Lone Star State's
border.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

...the USA is being transformed by immigrants who do not share those values, and who have high rates of illiteracy, illegitimacy, and gang crime, and they will vote Democrat when the Democrats promise them more food stamps.

If it had included drugs and porn it would have been the most condensed sentence of wingnuttery ever written.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng - who was at the centre of a diplomatic crisis with Washington - is on his way to the United States.
The blind activist and his family boarded a flight to Newark, near New York, after being taken from a Beijing hospital to the capital's airport.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Thursday the Obama administration had "failed" to protect a blind Chinese dissident by factoring political considerations into the negotiations that ultimately led him to leave the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took some time, in an interview with National Review
published Thursday, to praise Hewlett-Packard chief executive Meg
Whitman, who lost her 2010 bid to become governor of California.

Is it possible you will learn to actually read shit before you accuse said shit of being plagiarized?

I took down my earlier post on Elizabeth Warren plagiarizing from the book Getting On the Money Track. On Amazon.com, the Warren book All Your Worth is listed as having been published January 9, 2006. As it turns out, that is the paperback publication date; the hardback book was published in March 2005. As such, it appears that Getting on the Money Track (published in October 2005) plagiarized from All Your Worth, not the other way around.

National Review, your home of the misplaced term "editor" since the date of its inception.

Friday, May 18, 2012

The Bay Area has a plethora of brewing companies churning out some of the best beers in the country, but one lucky beer was given top honors when Beer Advocate deemed it the best in the world.
Russian River Brewing Company's Pliny the Younger sends beer lovers to bars like bees to honey, all because it currently holds the top spot at the user-drive review site.

I guess it edged out the similarly themed but less-lyrically pleasant "Pitt, the Elder".

Here is the famous painting of Pliny the Younger and Pliny the Elder, the latter watching Vesuvius erupt and being inspired to invent the all-you-can-eat "Indian Restaurant Lunch Buffet".

In an interview with conservative blogger Ed Morrissey, Mitt Romney defended banking giant JPMorgan and its CEO Jamie Dimon from criticisms from Wall Street reformers after the company lost $2 billion betting with customer money...
This was a loss to shareholders and owners of JPMorgan and that’s the way America works Some people experienced a loss in this case because of a bad decision. By the way, there was someone who made a gain. The $2 billion JPMorgan lost someone else gained.”

I'm sure getting ripped off by somebody at JPMorgan is just fine by those investors who take comfort in someone gaining from their misfortune.

Barack Obama is to press German chancellor Angela Merkel
to support a growth package to help bail out Europe at the G8 summit
this weekend amid fears in the White House that the eurozone crisis
could damage the president's re-election chances.

I mean sure, by this point a growth package is virtually humanitarian
relief, but there is one gigantic flaw in such a appeal -- Germany
didn't become the major supporter and enforcer of "austerity" for nothing:

Germany's economy grew by a stronger-than-expected 0.5% in the first three months of the year despite Europe's debt crisis...

Germany remains a standout performer despite Europe's troubles with
too much debt in several countries. Unemployment is low and exports of
manufactured goods such as cars and machinery remain robust.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Mittens newest ad contains people complaining about their unemployment as an attempt to pin it all on the current incumbent.

Of course, such ads are not exactly novel or out of bounds -- but they might require some minor vetting:

Jason Clausen, a Mason City, Iowa, man featured in Mitt Romney's new
video featuring unemployed people has a lengthy rap sheet and served ten
days in jail for "assault on a peace officer," public records show...

The records show Clausen had nearly 20 busts, tickets or fines, a number
of them traffic infractions related to things like driving while
intoxicated, or with a suspended license. Some were related to
accidents, others to driving without seat belts.

Some of these like seatbelts and possibly speeding are exceedingly minor. But as criminal background checks are common place (and Mason City is not exactly New York or Chicago) a guy with an assault against the police is not exactly a strong candidate to make it past a conditional offer.

Conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe released a new video
today supposedly exposing voter fraud in North Carolina by highlighting
non-citizens like Zbigniew Gorzkowski who have voted in recent
elections.

Last week saw Mitt Romney desperately trying to find someone at the world's most stereotypically named elitist Prep School to deny that even among the spoiled scions of old money he stood out as a gigantic prick.

So on to this week, who can Mitt bring forth to say that Willard is not a heartless corporate raider, but a living saint?

“The people that know him — the picture the media paints
is not the Mitt that I know,” Romney’s oldest son, Tagg, told The Daily.
“And I wish I could do something about it. I can’t tell you how many
people tell me that.”

Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, is to be charged with perverting the course of justice, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Tuesday.

She faces three charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice including the alleged removal of seven cases of material from the archive of News International and the alleged concealment of documents and computers from officers investigating phone hacking.

Brooks, who was arrested in March by Scotland Yard police officers investigating phone hacking, is the first person to face charges in the major criminal investigation into hacking and allegations of bribing public officials.

Her husband, Charlie Brooks, the racehorse trainer and friend of the prime minister, is also to be charged, the CPS announced.

Controversial radio host Rush Limbaugh made a surprise
visit to the state Capitol on Monday to be inducted into the Hall of
Famous Missourians...The ceremony today was unusual in that it was not
announced until 20 minutes before it was scheduled to begin and was not
open to the public.

And please enjoy the damning of faint praise from the Republican behind it all, Speaker Steve Tilley.

"it’s not the ‘Hall of Universally Loved Missourians.'"

And without irony it should be noted Limbaugh's induction was
bookended by the other honorees, Dred Scott and the recently departed,
and beloved, African-American baseball legend Buck O'Neil. Thereby
denoting the only way they'd have been caught in the same room with Rush
Limbaugh.

Monday, May 14, 2012

White supremacy, in the sense of a society in which key
decisions are made by white Europeans, is one of the better arrangements
History has come up with.

And oh how they loved "the Derb" over there -- and I find it hard to believe that in a dozen years, and many parties, confabs, and cruises Derbyshire didn't proudly wave his racist-freak flag high to giggles and nods of agreement from many of his co-horts.

I know that Bain & Associates already existed, but one would think when Bill Bain suggested the politically ambitious Mitt Romney set up a corporate raider division he might have suggested another name other than one that sounds identical to a word meaning "blight", "plague" or "scourge".

The bank - the biggest in the United States by assets - is expected to
accept the resignation of Ina Drew, its New York-based chief investment
officer and one of its highest-paid executives, in the next few days,
the sources said. Two of Drew's subordinates who were involved with the
trades, London-based Achilles Macris and Javier Martin-Artajo, are
expected to be asked to leave, they said.

But marriage is not solely about adults. Marriage is also
for children. In fact, marriage is principally for the nurturing and
development of children. The children of America have the right to have a
mother and a father.

Of course, even today, circumstances can take a parent from the home,
but the child still has a mother and a father. If the parents are
unmarried or divorced, the child can visit each of them. If a mother or a
father is deceased, the child can learn about the qualities of their
departed parent. His or her psychological development can still be
influenced by the contrasting features of both genders.

In other words, a dead straight parent beats a living same-sex parent.

...when it comes to the 2012 presidential election, Master Sergeant McDowell is no hawk.
In South Carolina's January primary, the one-time Reagan supporter voted for Ron Paul "because of his unchanging stand against overseas involvement." In November, McDowell plans to vote for the candidate least likely to wage "knee-jerk reaction wars."
Disaffection with the politics of shock and awe runs deep among men and women who have served in the military during the past decade of conflict. Only 32 percent think the war in Iraq ended successfully, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. And far more of them would pull out of Afghanistan than continue military operations there.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

An
unidentified entrepreneur admits he is trying to profit off Trayvon
Martin's death by selling gun range targets featuring the teen who's
death has sparked a nationwide controversy.

Although
Martin's face does not appear on the paper targets, they feature a
hoodie with crosshairs aimed at the chest. A bag of Skittles is tucked
in the pocket and a hand is holding a can resembling iced tea.

Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume
his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook
School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings
and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a
school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a
soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased
for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking
around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one
eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.

“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an
incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens
Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged
son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s
look, Friedemann recalled.

A few days later, Friedemann entered
Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching
out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their
plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room
where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground.
As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney
repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.

...

“It happened very quickly, and to this day it
troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he
joined Romney in restraining Lauber. Buford subsequently apologized to
Lauber, who was “terrified,” he said. “What a senseless, stupid, idiotic
thing to do.”

“It was a hack job,” recalled Maxwell, a childhood
friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred.
“It was vicious.”

“He was just easy pickins,” said Friedemann,
then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall,
expressing remorse about his failure to stop it.

The incident
transpired in a flash, and Friedemann said Romney then led his cheering
schoolmates back to his bay-windowed room in Stevens Hall.

Friedemann,
guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and
waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the
famously strict institution. Nothing happened.

Romney is now the
presumed Republican presidential nominee. His campaign spokeswoman said
the former Massachusetts governor has no recollection of the incident.

“Anyone
who knows Mitt Romney knows that he doesn’t have a mean-spirited bone
in his body,” Andrea Saul said in a statement. “The stories of fifty
years ago seem exaggerated and off base and Governor Romney has no
memory of participating in these incidents.”

Mr. "Not a mean bone in his body" the Bain Corporate Raider laying off thousands ("I like firing people")... but oh he's such a swell guy...well maybe just a swell.
In short, prick then, bigger prick now.

Plus, notice how rather than apologize or say it was a youthful error -- the asshole just denies having any memory of it -- while five of his school friends remember it and regret their part in it quite distinctly, many even going out of their way to apologize.

But ol' Mittster has never committed an admitted wrong in his life. Not on Joe Smith's grave has he done anything wrong ever.

The war, which President Barack Obama officially brought to an end Dec. 31, cost the U.S. government around $3 trilllion, left 4,487 U.S. servicemembers dead and killed more than 100,000 Iraqis. The Pentagon counts 32,226 U.S. servicemembers wounded, but the toll, including cumulative psychological and physiological damage, may be as high as half a million.

And, as an extra bonus:

An analysis of the historical record by the National Security Archives in 2010 concluded that,
“In contrast to an extensive record of planning for actual military
operations, there is no record that President George W. Bush ever made a
considered decision for war. All of the numerous White House and
Pentagon meetings concerned moving the project forward, not whether a
march into conflict was a proper course for the United States and its
allies. Deliberations were instrumental to furthering the war project,
not considerations of the basic course.”

Is George W. Bush's position on austerity? I'm sure it is completely hypocritical, as ever.

George W. Bush is slated to receive $1.3 million in taxpayer dollars for
fiscal year 2013, including $85,000 in phone costs and $26,000 in
printing costs, according to a budget proposal compiled by the General Services Administration...

Bush's anticipated phone bill is five times higher than the next closest
request, which was submitted by George Bush senior. George W. Bush also
had the highest requests for unspecified office equipment ($86,000),
travel ($60,000), postage ($20,000) and "other services" ($26,000).

Sure President Obama would have been braver to express his support of
gay marriage sooner, and certainly a stronger statement that marriage
is a right could have been expressed. But it is not like he went out
and announced awarded himself two Pulitzer Prize nominations. It is still a significant moment.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

This is a big and historic day in the United States -- while it may have been a braver stance somewhat earlier, it is still a big one for the President of the United States to come out for marriage equality.

A monthly newsletter published by the Greene County Republican Committee in Virginia is raising eyebrows
for including a column in its March edition that calls for an "armed
revolution" if President Barack Obama is elected to a second term in
November.

Meanwhile, I'm sure FoxNews is screeching about Hillary Clinton without makeup or something.

I know that to be a patriotic 'murican yesterday I was supposed to soil my pants over Al Qaeda's new and improved "super-explosive underwear". But alas, plot devices straight out of "The Pink Panther" do not really have that effect on me. I just cannot get over this alleged bunch of criminal masterminds deciding to terrorize the world via 'Fruit of the Boom'.

Yes, Al Qaeda has committed heinous acts of mass murder -- but they
are also buffoons -- who were dealt with exclusively in a completely
moronic way for years.

Oh, and once again the vilified and mocked police actions that John Kerry mentioned as the most effected way to fight international terrorism came through.

Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, working closely with
the CIA, used an informant to pose as a would-be suicide bomber. His job
was to convince the Al Qaeda franchise in Yemen to give him a new kind
of non-metallic bomb that the militants were designing to easily pass
through airport security.

But the double agent instead arranged to deliver the explosive device
to U.S. and other intelligence authorities waiting in another country,
officials said Tuesday. The agent is now safely outside Yemen and is
being debriefed.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

EUCLID, Ohio (AP) — Campaigning in the backyard of America's auto industry, Mitt Romney
re-ignited the bailout debate by suggesting he deserves "a lot of
credit" for the recent successes of the nation's largest car companies.

That claims comes in spite of his stance that Detroit should have been allowed to go bankrupt.

* Unlike some people, Mitt Romney will ACTUALLY claim to have invented the internet.

* Last Spring you didn't see much of Mitt Romney because he was the leader of Seal Team Six.

* Mitt Romney personally, at the age of 9 dressed up as a middle-aged
black woman named Rosa Parks and launched the Civil Rights
Movement...as black people did not yet exist in 1955. Simultaneously,
though he doesn't want to admit it, Mitt Romney invented drag and
lauched both Milton Berle's and Ru Paul's career (job creator!!!)

We now agree that Ms. Riley’s blog posting did not meet The Chronicle’s
basic editorial standards for reporting and fairness in opinion
articles. As a result, we have asked Ms. Riley to leave the Brainstorm
blog.

Of course, if you do quit, as a non-editing editor you'd be perfect for National Review.

But if you are but a worker for Wells Fargo, well, the rich --
especially when they come in the personhood of a large corporation -- are just better people than you:

Yolanda Quesada was fired when a background check revealed she shoplifted in 1972.

"[I'm] very good at what I do for Wells Fargo," Quesada says.

Quesada says she was a good employee, and has the pins, certificates
and photos to prove it. But, her supervisor walked her out the door last
week after more than five years of service at Wells Fargo...

Quesada says she worked in phone customer service and never handled cash.

Monday, May 07, 2012

The no-holds-barred Texas rocker told CBS' "This Morning" that Romney's campaign told him to "stay on course" and not to tone it down after Nugent said he will "either be dead or in jail by this time next year" if President Obama is re-elected.

As John Avarosis notes, the Romney Campaign isn't denying the story.
God forbid the national media inquire further as to why they are encouraging violent, insane, conduct.

Late last week gave us a taste of things to come when the British
local elections revealed that the ruling Tories and their austerity
program took a good thrashing.

But the weekend revealed more discontent, it was relatively close, but one of the parents of Europe's austerity measures Nicholas Sarkozy went down to defeat to Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande. Sarkozy becomes the first French President to lose an election in more than three decades. Hollande becomes the first Socialist President in 17 years.

And in the land where austerity has bitten the deepest, Greece, the ruling party lost so many votes they may not be able to hold their coalition together.
Although the fact that they may be able to do so, despite Greece's
disastrous economy, makes you wonder how ineffective the opposition
manages to be.

Russian riot police beat protesters about the head with
batons and detained more than 400 on Sunday after clashes broke out at a
Moscow rally by thousands of people against Vladimir Putin on the eve
of his return to the presidency.

Opposition leaders Alexei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Udaltsov
were among those detained during violence that showed the depth of
divisions and tensions in Russia as the former KGB spy starts his
six-year third term on Monday.

Saturday, May 05, 2012

The next National Review Booze Cruise is heading out of port the week after the election. All of your favorite self-floating and gas propelled incoherents will be there Jonah, K-Lo, and as a special bonus Elliot Abrams and John Yoo will be bringing the ball-gags and gimp suits.

Plus every other trust fund white guy who inherited daddy's wingnut column you can think of -- to lecture you about the evils of affirmative action.

Friday, May 04, 2012

Yet another of Rupert Murdoch's publication embarrasses itself, although the NY Post being full-on racists is hardly a new phenomena.

"Why the Brooklyn Nets when they can be the New York N------s? The cheerleaders could be the Brooklyn B----hes or Hoes. Team logo? A 9 mm with hollow-tip shell casings strewn beneath. Wanna be Jay-Z hip? Then go all the way!"

In any other publication not owned by Rupert Murdoch the columnist Phil Mushnick and his editor would be heading down to the unemployment office.